The NHL this morning announced it had fined Gabriel Landeskog and Cody McLeod for their actions at the end of the Avalanche’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota.

Here’s the release, with explanations:

My non-homer views on this are on the record here and here, and I respect the right of expression and even understand the perspective of those who have disagreed with me.

But I’m going to re-emphasize two things (you can skip this if you’ve read the linked pieces):

1, The Wild acting affronted about all of this lacks credibility. See: Cooke, Matt.

2, In all my years of covering hockey, what hasn’t changed is the laughably predictable and too-common 180-degree swinging in reactions, depending on whether it’s “your” guy or “their” guy. And I mean from not just teams, broadcasters, coaches, and players, but even more so fans and — unfortunately, this is what’s most embarrassing — members of the media.

In two minor-league trades Monday, the Avalanche dealt defenseman Karl Stollery to San Jose and Lake Erie teammate Michael Sgarbossa, a forward, to Anaheim. In return, the Avs got forward Freddie Hamilton from the Sharks and defenseman Mat Clark from the Ducks. Both Hamilton and Clark will report to Lake Erie.

In another trade that was later confirmed by Colorado, the Avs acquired 2009 first-round draft pick Jordan Caron and a 2016 sixth-round draft pick from Boston for forwards Max Talbot and Paul Carey. Caron, 24, has played 11 games with the Bruins this season and 132 in his NHL career.

Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog said there’s more to the story in what angered Cody McLeod late in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota. McLeod fought the Wild’s Charlie Coyle after an center-ice faceoff with less than 4 seconds to play in the game. I have yet to find a video that supports this, but Landeskog said Coyle picked the fight by slashing McLeod in the back of the legs before the faceoff.

“I don’t think it’s anything that should be blown out of proportion,” Landeskog told me after practice. “I think Cody, like the rest of us, was frustrated and played hard out there. And Coyle was standing in the back of him, slashing the back of his legs, and Cody turned around and does his job — like he would to anybody. It doesn’t matter who it is, if somebody is slashing you in the back of the legs, you assume they want a piece of you. And Cody took care of Coyle … Cody did what he had to do, and a lot of us would do the same thing. So I agree with Cody there. That’s the way I saw it. I haven’t seen it on video after.”

The Avs play at the Wild Sunday in the fifth and final regular-season teams between the rivals. Minnesota is 4-0 and has allowed just one goal.

Defenseman Jan Hejda said he had “heard a lot of stuff from the media, but nothing has changed in the last few days. . . We’ll see what happens. It’s not up to me anymore. I’m just kind of waiting and hoping that I will be an Avalanche player in an hour.”

Why did he want to stay with Colorado rather than go to a team more likely to be in the playoffs?

“First of all, I still believe we can make the playoffs,” Hejda said. “Lately, even that last game against Minnesota, we played better. We just need to start scoring goals, and I believe that’s coming. Second, this was my choice, I chose the Avalanche as my team (signing as a free agent in 2011) and I want to win a Stanley Cup for this team.”

Daniel Briere, 37, was not traded as a pending UFA. His 307-goal career will likely end in Colorado:

In the final seconds of Colorado’s 3-1 loss to Minnesota last night, Avalanche winger Cody McLeod stirred it up, jostling with Mikael Granlund and ending up fighting with Charlie Coyle. He drew an unsportsmanlike conduct, fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct. I already had filed my “running” story and was on the way down to the dressing room at the time and caught the end of the milling around from the ice-level portal, so I’m not going to claim to have seen or watched all of it from beginning to end.

The link above is to my recent feature on McLeod. I like him a lot and respect his blue-collar work ethic. But what happened there was another example of what I referred to as “suspect” aspects of his game and his rationale for fighting, though the Avalanche point of view — unspoken perhaps — is that it was a “standing up” response (an indirect one) to the Sean Bergenheim hit on Nathan MacKinnon in the middle of the third period that left the Avalanche teenager with an apparent broken nose.

The game was over, no point was made, and it just added to rather than mitigated the Avalanche embarrassment. Read more…

Beau Bennett #19 of the Pittsburgh Penguins handles the puck in front of Brandon Saad #20 and Marian Hossa #81 of the Chicago Blackhawks in the third period during the game at Consol Energy Center on January 21, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ( Justin K. Aller, Getty Images)

Spotlight on… Beau Bennett, right wing, Penguins

When: The Avalanche hosts Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the second consecutive 8 p.m. start time at the Pepsi Center.

What’s up: Bennett, a California-born forward from the University of Denver, via the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, had the mumps and missed the first game against the Avs on Dec. 18 in Pittsburgh, a 1-0 overtime victory for the Penguins. Bennett has overcome illness and injury this season and is working his way back to a top-six forward for one of the NHL’s best teams.

Background: Bennett, 23, was drafted 20th by Pittsburgh in 2010 and signed with the Penguins after his sophomore year at DU in 2012. He had a fine 25-point freshman season but was limited to only 10 games as a sophomore because of a wrist injury. Denver hockey fans never got a long look at one of the most glorified DU players of all time.

Chambers’ take: With one hand, Bennett can shoot the puck harder than some with two hands on the stick. Late in his brief career at DU, Bennett would practice with the Pioneers but couldn’t use his surgically repaired right hand. The strength and accuracy of his one-handed, leg-whip shot was extraordinary. For old time’s sake, maybe he will use that move in warm-ups Wednesday.

Because the Avalanche didn’t have a morning skate or availability, Patrick Roy met with me a little over two hours before Colorado’s game with Minnesota Saturday night.

Here’s what he said when I asked him why Nathan MacKinnon had played so sparingly — he essentially was benched — in the third period and overtime of the Avalanche’s 5-4 shootout win at Dallas Friday: “I must have lost him in the rotation. Sometimes those things happen, you know.”

Nicely, I said I wasn’t sure I believed him. MacKinnon played 100 seconds in the third period and overtime. Patrick Roy isn’t “losing” Nathan MacKinnon, the player he sought to land for the Quebec Remparts when MacKinnon was 15 and balking at reporting to Baie-Comeau, who took him in the QMJHL draft, and the player he felt so strongly was the right choice at No. 1 overall in the 2013 draft.

DALLAS — Avalanche teenager Nathan MacKinnon was benched for much of the third period in what turned into a dramatic come-from-behind 5-4 shootout win over the Stars. Game story is here. As I wrote on Twitter postgame — after talking to Avs players and coaches — the frustrations with producing an online story BEFORE I go downstairs is severe. But it’s not just our paper; it’s in every NHL, NFL and NBA market. We are required to file a “running” gamer at the buzzer, so typically we’re too busy looking at the computer screen than the game in front of us. In a game like Friday — five third-period goals, changing momentum — I didn’t see much of the game, focusing on the online game story. Thus, I didn’t see that MacKinnon was bench by coach Patrick Roy, which is why I didn’t ask Roy about MacKinnon’s absence that some thought was caused by injury.

Sob story aside, Roy said he’s going with the same lines on Saturday night in Denver against Minnesota that he finished with Friday, meaning MacKinnon is not in the top six.
“Yes, (Cody) McLeod played really well with Jarome (Iginla and center Matt Duchene) and (Max) Talbot played really well with (Gabe) Landeskog and (Ryan) O’Reilly,” Roy told me.

Avalanche GM Joe Sakic, coach Patrick Roy and his staff played shinny Friday at the American Airlines Center after the morning skates. Forward Paul Carey, who will be scratched against the Stars, and backup goalie Reto Berra also participated:

DALLAS — Feels like New York here. Cold, snow and traffic. Yes, it’s a snow day in Big D. Accidents all over the streets, schools are letting out early, Stars players told to avoid traveling to their suburban homes between the morning skate and the game — all because an inch or two of snow. But the game will go on, and it’s a big one between teams with 63 points — eight behind Minnesota for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot. The morning skate report is here.

Avalanche captain Gabe Landeskog got in his third NHL fight of the season and fifth of his career Tuesday at Nashville. In a big-blow scrap that began as a response to Landeskog’s crushing forecheck hit on Roman Josi, Landeskog fared well against the bigger and more seasoned Preds D Shea Weber:

Freelance game story from Colorado’s 5-2 loss at Nashville is here. The Avalanche is off Wednesday and will practice Thursday at a suburban Dallas rink. I fly to Dallas in the morning and will report from practice, Friday’s morning skate at the American Airlines Center and the ensuing game against the Stars.

As it stands, forward Daniel Briere will be the only extra Av against Dallas. On Wednesday, the team reassigned defenseman Stefan Elliott to Lake Erie of the American League. Elliott struggled mightily against the Preds and his demotion likely had something to do with his waiver status. So right now, expect D Zach Redmond to return to the lineup Friday.

The Avs host Minnesota on Saturday in their last game before Monday’s NHL trade deadline. Colleague Terry Frei has the game against the Wild, as he and I swap teams over the weekend. Terry has the Denver Pioneers’ big NCHC tilt against Miami on Friday in Denver, and I’ll do the series finale Saturday. Avs GM Joe Sakic is expected to meet with local media Saturday, likely before the game against Minnesota, and discuss trade-deadline issues.

At a minimum, you can bet the Avs will look at moving pending unrestricted free agent D Jan Hejda to a playoff team as a rental. Hejda is a good shot-blocker who could provide depth for a playoff team, and in return the Avs could get a prospect and/or draft pick. I can’t see Colorado re-signing Hejda, 36, as it re-tools its D for next season. His departure opens $3.25 million in cap room. Briere could also be moved for many of the same reasons. He’s a pending UFA at age 37, and his cap hit is $4 million. But Briere — a proven clutch playoff scorer — can’t get in a lineup for a team that’s unofficially in playoff-mode right now, so the takers figure to be few.

Ryan O’Reilly? He’s Colorado’s first-line center right now, playing between Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon. O’Reilly is unquestionably sought by playoff-bound teams, but moving him to one of those by Monday will not get you a first-pairing D. Unless the Avs can get a top prospect and first-round draft pick for O’Reilly, I’m betting he finishes the season in Colorado.

Whether it’s this spring or this summer, the Avs will re-build their D. But it could be subtle changes — one or two additions — given the expected training camp excitement over young draftees Chris Bigras, Mason Geertsen, Kyle Wood, Will Butcher and others. Yes, those four are 20-under and might be years away from being an NHL regular. But they certainly add intrigue to how the Avs go about things for next season and beyond.

Teenager Nathan MacKinnon put three shots on net and becomes the youngest Avalanche player with a hat trick. Game story here.

Avs defenseman Nate Guenin was plus-2 in 20:18, including 3:51 on the penalty kill (Lightning went 0-of-3 on power play). Forget Guenin’s zero shots; he blocked three. Ideal night for the very affable Steel City dude from Ohio State — who fared well in a fight while at the end of his shift against a much more experienced tough guy:

Guenin, 32, got in his first career NHL regular-season fight late in the second period against the well-traveled and highly respected Brenden Morrow, 36. Morrow wanted Guenin to pay for a questionable hit on Nikita Kucherov near the Tampa Bay bench. As the video shows, Guenin delivered his forearm-shiver check on Kucherov and it looks like it was a punch to the head. After further review, it looks like he didn’t connect with the head. But Morrow didn’t like it and, from what seen and been told, changed with Kucherov and went after Guenin — after a puck battle in the corner.

Video doesn’t support the Kucherov-for-Morrow change, but here’s what Guenin told me: “I hit whoever it was (Kucherov) and (Morrow) came off for him, a line change, and asked me to go right away. I was so (freaking) tired. Morrow is a heart and soul guy, so I knew what he was doing. He had to do that. I get it. I was just so tired, just gassed. It’s not like he jumped me. He asked me and I was just like, ‘Dude, (jeez) whatever you want to do.'”

Colleague Terry Frei and I don’t see eye-to-eye with hockey fighting, and that works. We agree to disagree. So the following statement is mine and mine alone: I like what Morrow did for his teammate and team. At the same time, I like Guenin’s toughness and response — on the ice and afterward in the locker room. Guenin’s forearm shiver is trouble. He either accidentally connects to the head and gets a penalty, or looks like he’s going after the head and infuriates the opposing bench. If he continues to use the high-swinging forearm check, he should — and will — expect a physical response from a guy like Morrow.

You all know I cover college hockey too. Love it. Going back and forth from the NCAA and NHL is a real treat. I believe every solid hockey writer should be intertwined in the amateur and pro games. Terry Frei — who has significant experience in major-junior — is all that. But I HATE cheap shots in the college game from guys who hide behind the harsh NCAA fighting rules (and gladiator cages/fish bowls). If Guenin was still playing for the Buckeyes, he might throw that forearm every game and not get in one fight all season. So he’s either in the penalty box or driving the opponent mad, or both. Hockey players never forget, and built-up frustration is dangerous.

But with Guenin and Kucherov/Morrow, it’s over. Guenin got his big hit. Kucherov (who scored Tampa’s fifth goal and had two points) is thankful he has a teammate like Morrow. And Morrow is Morrow. He’s a hockey player, a “heart and soul guy” as Guenin said. Nothing lingers.

When: Tuesday against the Avalanche at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.

What’s up: Rinne probably will be in the net when the Avs make their season’s second visit to Music City.

Background: For the revitalized Predators, Rinne has been stingy in posting the second-best goals-against average and save percentage to Montreal’s Carey Price in the NHL going into the weekend. Rinne was out for three weeks with a minor knee injury before returning to the crease Feb. 5 against Anaheim, and although he allowed five goals on 40 shots in a loss to the Islanders on Thursday, he mostly has been strong since. The Avs faced backups Carter Hutton and Marek Mazanec in late January, getting three points in the home-and-home set over four days. Rinne will be more formidable.

Frei’s take: Price and Rinne will duel for the Vezina Trophy, but also are candidates for the Hart Trophy.

Paul Carey in his first NHL game, against the Blackhawks late last season (Doug Pensinger, Getty Images)

After arriving back from Chicago during the night, and once it was determined Snowmageddon would be at least delayed, the Avalanche practiced Saturday afternoon at Family Sports Center. Colorado next faces the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday at 5 p.m. in the Pepsi Center.

“The only reason why we’re on the ice today is because we’re not going to skate tomorrow morning,” Patrick Roy said. “If it would have been a 7 o’clock game, I don’t think we would be here today. The fact that tomorrow morning, we’re not even going to be going to the rink, so I thought it would be good for us to go for less than 30 minutes, 25 minutes, just move our pick, move our feet, to make sure we’re ready for a strong game tomorrow.” Read more…

On Thursday at Avalanche practice I was working on a Friday feature about righties and lefties in the Avs’ locker room, and how the righties — the longtime minority in the NHL — are the better goal scorers (13 of the 21 all-time greatest snipers are righties, including Mario Lemieux and Mike Bossy, the only ones in the top 21 who didn’t play in 1,000 games). The right-shooting Jarome Iginla leads Colorado with 18 goals and he’s among the top 20 all-time.

Avs center Matt Duchene and others are very adamant about the righties/lefties subject, with Duchene saying he wishes he was a right shot, the side he throws a ball. Same for John Mitchell, who says big-bomb righties Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Tyler Seguin and others have a big power-play advantage because most of their teammates are lefties and the power play is played on the right half-wall, and they go to town with the weakside open looks. Nathan MacKinnon, Daniel Briere and Zach Redmond do almost everything from the right side, although MacKinnon has a dominant left leg for soccer and Briere eats with his left hand. Jan Hejda says his hockey coaches in the Czech Republic would hand a kid a stick, and whatever hand the kid took it from would be the top hand on his stick. But Hejda doesn’t like that method, and others such as golf teachers forcing left-shooting hockey players to go lefty on the course. Ryan O’Reilly says he’s a lefty because his older brother was a lefty, and Cal O’Reilly became a lefty because Wayne Gretzky was a lefty.

I’m a righty in everything I do — hockey, baseball, golf, hunting etc., but I tried to get my right-handed son to be a lefty in hockey, so his dominant hand is on the top. Didn’t work. He’s all righty too. Anyway, interesting read Friday. I’ll link that story here when it posts.

I asked Avs coach Patrick Roy about righties and lefties, from a goalie perspective as well as a coach/executive. About being a goaltender, he said with a smile: “Personally it didn’t matter to me. I was confident against right or left.” About being a coach/executive, he veered to the Avalanche’s D prospects, and how (in order of their mention) teenagers Mason Geertsen, Chris Bigras, Ben Storm and Will Butcher — each left-handed shots — might someday compliment the Avs’ righties in Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie, Stefan Elliott, Zach Redmond and Nate Guenin.

“We have Johnson, Barrie, Elliott, Redmond, Guenin. We feel pretty comfortable on the right side, and they’re young,” Roy said, forgetting Guenin is 31. “On the left D, we have Geertsen who we drafted (and) needs to be signed, we have Bigras, we have Storm playing college (at St. Cloud State), we have Butcher (at DU). We have different Ds that we think eventually (will be NHL material).”

Thursday afternoon I scoured hockeydb.com and found that the 6-foot-4 Geertsen (Vancouver Giants, WHL), 6-1 Bigras (Owen Sound Attack, OHL) and 2014 draftee Kyle Wood (North Bay Battalion, OHL), who goes 6-5, are having big major-junior seasons. No wonder Roy mentioned Geertsen first. Selected 93rd in a 2013 draft that could become Colorado’s best since 2009 (Duchene, O’Reilly, Elliott, Barrie), Geertsen has a team-leading plus-10 and leads all Giants D with 11 goals and 35 points in 56 games. Geertsen, 19, was picked in the fourth round in 2013, after MacKinnon (first), Bigras (second) and goalie Spencer Martin (third), and before Butcher (fifth) and the 6-7 Storm (sixth).

Among the aforementioned D prospects, Wood is the youngest and the only right-handed shot. He’s just 18 but has 16-18-34 (plus-8) in 53 games for North Bay. Bigras is the highest draft pick (32nd in 2013) and will probably get the most attention at training camp this fall. I’ve seen the 5-10 Butcher and 6-7 Storm play, and they’re complete opposites. Butcher is fine-tuned, intelligent small D and Storm is a big D project.

@MikeChambers has shown a massive leap forward in development. He logs the toughest matchups among VAN D while also playing PP and PK.

Bottom line: The Avs, judging from Roy’s statement and what you see on paper and online, have some impressive young D to get excited about. Granted, the organization has drafted poorly in mid-to-late rounds the past 10 years, but the 2013 and 2014 classes might be different. You might see some real positive results.

@MikeChambers NHL brain. Very steady. Positionally sound. Great reach. 3-zone defender. Knows when and when not to take risks.

“We had the players that we had when we took the job,” Roy said of he and Joe Sakic, both now in their second years as the top executives. “What we’re looking at right now is the depth, who’s coming up and the future of this team.”

One other note. Roy said he wants a big center or two. “You look at our centers; they’re all close to 6-feet,” he said. “We’d like to have a 6-2 or 6-3 center.”

A three-goal second period for the Los Angeles Kings leads to a 4-1 win for the visitors at the Pepsi Center. The Avalanche put 43 shots on goalie Jonathan Quick in another solid offensive performance, but the power play goes 0-of-3.

Bottom line: Among the 14 Western Conference teams, the Avs are one of three to have not reached 60 points. Colorado (59 points) is only ahead of Arizona (47) and Edmonton (44).

Matt Duchene politely corrected me in saying the Kings’ second and third goals were not a result of an Avalanche defensive breakdowns. Tyler Toffoli’s drive to the net resulted in the puck bouncing in off Semyon Varlamov’s pad. And Dustin Brown’s easy back-door tap-in goal that made it 3-1 came on a 6-on-5 attack. “You can’t cover everyone in that situation,” Duchene said:

Noteworthy: Colorado reached 40 shots for the fifth time this season, and the 43 against the Kings were the third most. The Avs had 48 on Oct. 24 against Vancouver and 47 versus Dallas on Nov. 29. … Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov made his 14th consecutive start, and No. 1 star Quick made his 13th straight start in net. … Avs captain Gabe Landeskog extended his goal-scoring streak to four games, tying Erik Johnson for the longest this season. … Center Ryan O’Reilly won 20-of-26 faceoffs, a career high. … The Kings won their sixth consecutive game.

Los Angeles Kings rookie Nick Shore was born in Denver and attended the University of Denver. He signed with the Kings (26-18-2) after his junior year in 2013. Shore, 22, will make his big-league debut against the Avalanche (24-22-11) at Pepsi Center, and play his seventh consecutive NHL game and 12th overall:

No lineup changes for the Avalanche against the defending Stanley Cup champions. More on that here.

Shore is expected to center L.A.’s fourth line, with wingers Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan. Shore grew up playing for the Littleton Hockey Association and Colorado Thunderbirds (triple-A) before joining the U.S. National Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. His parents David and Sarah, along with brothers Quentin and Baker and the majority of the DU hockey team, will be in attendance Wednesday. Quentin Shore is a junior at DU, and the third Shore boy to play for the Pioneers as an NHL draft pick. Quentin’s rights are owned by the Ottawa Senators. Drew Shore, 24, became the first DU product in 2009 and is currently playing for the Calgary Flames’ AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Flames. He was recently traded to Calgary from Florida, which drafted him 44th overall in 2009.

Here’s what Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said about Nick Shore: “He fits in well. He’s a good kid. He’s funny, he’s goofy, a good player and he fits well in our system. He’s a smart player on the ice and we need someone like that.”

— OK, so neither the zoom-in on my iPhone nor the operator was capable of producing a sharp picture here.

But with the NHL trading deadline approaching, when two NHL general managers spend a morning skate sitting together at the top of the Pepsi Center’s lower bowl, as Joe Sakic and the Coyotes’ Don Malone did Monday — it’s going to draw some attention.

And perhaps raise some eyebrows.

Coyotes’ defenseman Keith Yandle, 28, especially a force on the power play, has a year remaining on his five-year, $26.5-million contract, and if Arizona’s housecleaning and rebuilding goes into high gear, he could go — despite the fact this is not some 34-year-old D-man heading into his final seasons. Mike Chambers summarizes Yandle as a player in our advance box this morning: Read more…

Ryan O’Reilly skates before the Avalanche’s game against the Edmonton Oilers December 19, 2013. Photo By Karl Gehring/The Denver Post

Sunday was generally an off day for most of the Avalanche. Forwards Alex Tanguay, Daniel Briere, Dennis Everberg, Marc-Andre Cliche and Paul Carey, defenseman Stefan Elliott and goalie Reto Berra did some drills with goalie whisperer Francois Allair. The other guys had light off-ice workouts. No significant news, other than coach Patrick Roy saying defensemen Jan Hejda and Brad Stuart are nursing injuries but likely to play Monday against the visiting Arizona Coyotes.

I visited with O’Reilly after a morning skate on the road recently to work on a Q&A piece for Colorado Rubber Hockey Magazine. You’ll have to read the magazine for the full interview, but here’s excerpts:

MC: Favorite sport outside hockey?
ROR: Beach volleyball, probably my second-favorite sport. My dad grew up coaching it at a high level, and still does. I used to watch beach volleyball all the time and really enjoy playing it. You’re always involved in every play, and it’s legs, hand-eye (coordination), powerful. You have to be explosive and smart with positioning. (O’Reilly said he plays beach volleyball in Toronto and at Lake Huron, near his home in Clinton, Ontario.)

MC: Game-day routine and go-to pregame meal?
ROR: I have two large salads as my pregame meal, pretty much every time. My main source of energy comes from my vegetables. I actually stopped eating meat a while ago. The guys give it to me, but the main part of my pregame meal is veggies and salad. As for my pregame, I come to the rink and do a hot/cold tub. It wakes me up after a nap and heats up my legs and stuff.

MC: Favorite restaurant in Denver and what are you ordering?
ROR: I have to say Vesta, 18th and Blake. It’s a dipping grill and it’s all different sauces and the bread comes with roasted garlic. I used to always get the tenderloin, the best steaks I’ve ever had. Not ordering that anymore but I recommend the steak there.

MC: Favorite vacation spot and why?
ROR: Ireland. Love the people over there and how they get along. I got to golf over there too, and I always enjoy golf. Having my heritage being from there, it’s a place I want to go. Great people and great golf courses.

O’Reilly is a pending unrestricted free agent after the 2015-16 season. His name is undoubtedly mentioned in every telephone conversation between the Avs’ front office and GMs across the league, and that will continue heading into the March 2 trade deadline. Terry Frei and I, along with NHL.com’s Rick Sadowski, will meet with Avalanche GM Joe Sakic over the next week or so to discuss trade-deadline matters. Stay tuned.

Cody McLeod’s line: four shots, five hits, two blocked shots in 8:58. He was tossed from the game 6:22 into the third period after racking up 30 minutes of penalties. He had two fighting majors and absorbed a over-another-guy’s-shoulder sucker punch in a scrum from Jason Demers before both were given 10-minute misconducts. We aren’t sure why McLeod got the additional game misconduct, and the crowd of 18,087 didn’t want to see McLeod go.

So I figured I’d help bring him back to do the Altitude postgame No. 1 star interview — based primarily on his rugged play when he still had his skates on. Plays away from the puck can be as important as what you do with the puck on your stick. McLeod did plenty to halt Colorado’s four-game losing streak.

Helluva #1 Star pick tonight by @MikeChambers, tip of the cap to you sir. Cody Mac brought the pain tonight and set the tone for the #Avs

Who would you have picked for the No. 1 star? The guys with one goal: Gabe Landeskog (changed from Nathan MacKinnon), Alex Tanguay, Jarome Iginla, Dennis Everberg? Everberg and Tanguay got their second points of the night in the final minute, long after my selections had to be made. Goalie Semyon Varlamov? He had 15 saves after two periods and 24 for the game, and was at best the No. 3 star. A defensemen or two were in the running — Brad Stuart and Nate Guenin — because both had assists and led the charge in front of Varlamov. But I settled on McLeod because hockey is a rugged sport, nobody plays as rugged as No. 55, and he played his role to perfection in all three periods. And, I’ll admit, I wanted to see the crowd’s response when McLeod came out of the dressing room in sweats. McLeod wears the “A” because he’s a great team guy. The fans love him too; he’s always the one guy who goes to battle every game.

When: The defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings play the Avalanche on Wednesday, the first of two meetings this season in Denver.

What’s up: Shore, a 22-year-old rookie, was born in the Mile High City and attended the University of Denver, playing three seasons for the Pioneers before signing with the Kings in the spring of 2013. He had played in nine games for the Kings entering Saturday after being called up from the minors for the first time in January before the all-star break. He was the American Hockey League’s second-leading scorer at the time.

Background: Shore is the second of David and Sarah Shore’s four sons. The couple, with no hockey background at the time, met while attending law school at DU, and their first date was at a Pioneers hockey game. The first three boys have played at DU, including the oldest, Drew of the Calgary Flames organization, and Quentin, a junior center and Ottawa Senators draftee. Nick was drafted by the Kings in the third round (82nd overall) in 2011. The youngest brother, Baker, 15, also plays hockey.

Chambers’ take: Nick is a solid end-to-end hockey player who might have the best pro career of the three NHL-drafted Shores. The Kings’ philosophy begins with winning puck battles against the wall, and Shore’s strength is in the small-games area. Shore is in an ideal situation, and his NHL career appears bright.

Lineup news from the Avalanche (22-22-11) morning skate at the Pepsi Center is here. Dallas (26-21-8), which beat Florida 2-0 at home Friday night, did not have a morning skate and is going without forwards Tyler Seguin (knee), Ales Hemsky (lower body), Patrick Eaves (concussion) and Antoine Roussel (suspension) against the Avs. Here’s the video of Seguin’s injury (out 2-4 weeks) late in Friday’s game against the Panthers:

John Mitchell as a Ranger against the Avalanche in March 2012. (Bill Kostroun, Associated Press)

John Mitchell will center the Avalanche’s third line, between Cody McLeod and Dennis Everberg, Thursday night against the New York Rangers. He played 63 games with the Rangers in 2011-12, plus 17 to open the season with the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, then known as the Connecticut Whale (did they use “Brass Bonanza”?) before reverting to Hartford Wolf Pack.

That run with New York came after he broke into the league with a 159-game stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs and a March 2011 trade to the Rangers.

“We had a good team that year,” Mitchell said after the morning skate. “We went deep into the playoffs and we had the Winter Classic (at Philadelphia) and the HBO (reality show), so it was a fun year.”

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.